SAN JOSE — Forward Logan Couture said it doesn’t matter to him whether he becomes a captain or an alternate captain for the Sharks this season. He’s not changing the way he approaches the game.

“I think l’ll feel the exact same way if I don’t have a letter. You don’t need a letter on your chest to be a leader, especially on this team,” Couture said Friday on the first day the team was on the ice for training camp. “We’ve got plenty of leaders in this dressing room, so a letter on your chest doesn’t mean anything.”

Along with Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Couture is among the group of younger players who may wear a ‘C’ or an ‘A’ for the Sharks this season. Joe Thornton was stripped of the captaincy earlier this summer and no one is wearing a letter at the start of camp.

In the Ontario Hockey League, Couture was a captain for the Ottawa 67s. But that was junior hockey, where 18- and 19-year-old players are already expected to be leaders on a team with 16- and 17-year-olds.

Couture may not be the most vocal player, but his gravitas with the Sharks has increased mainly because of his play on the ice. He had 54 points in 65 games last season, and is beginning the first season of a five-year, $30 million contract with San Jose.

“It’s not even on my mind until you guys started talking about it. No one talks about it in this room,” Couture said of the captaincy. “We’ll see what happens. Who knows. It’s up to the coaching staff and the organization to do what they have to do. Like I said, if there’s a letter, if there isn’t a letter, it’s still going to be the same.”

Couture had hand surgery in June, but said that it felt fine on the first day of camp. Couture suffered the injury April 28 in a fight with Mike Richards of the Los Angeles Kings in Game 6 of their first round playoff series. Couture had three points in the series but was held scoreless over the last five games as the Kings defeated the Sharks in seven games.

After if there was an issue in the room that needed to be fixed after the loss, when it was described that the Sharks were more like coworkers than teammates, Couture said, “I think we’re a pretty close team. I think a lot of us have played together for a lot of years. Obviously it’s not an ideal situation what happened this summer, but that’s the way it goes. We’re going to have to build from it.”

Couture was mainly happy to get back to work.

“I’m happy today because now it can all be shut off. Now it’s time to start a new season,” he said. “Today was the first day, and we’ll move forward from here and build off of training camp and hopefully have a good start going into the season.”